A Culture of Caring

Like a born politician, Mark Steward, director of Missiouri Division of Youth Services, found his calling in juvenile hall, but his political moxie served him well, helping him broker improbable coalitions to promote exemplary reforms. Thirty-five years later, leading experts praise Missouri's Division of Youth Services as a "guiding light" of juvenile-justice reform, and they credit Steward with building--and sustaining--the finest state juvenile corrections system in the country. The Division of Youth Service's "culture of caring,' as Steward describes it, is more than just an airy mission statement.